JACOB Rees-Mogg has celebrated his 250th birthday in the remote country house where he was born in 1768.
Making his excuses from a constituency function, Mr Rees-Mogg stole away through a back door, donned his top hat and cape and made for a waiting carriage to whisk him to an ancient pile deep in the Cotswolds.
The MP was accompanied by his faithful manservant, Hodges, sworn to secrecy on pain of having his tongue removed with a pair of heated tongs.
Mr Rees-Mogg enjoyed a candlelit supper of mead and venison, as is his custom on every half-century; he partook of the same meal in 1968, 1918 and 1868.
He said: “Contrary to being the son of my father William Rees-Mogg, former editor of The Times, I am actually his Great-Great-Great Grandfather.
“I’ve always had somewhat of a boyish air; my nannies often remarked on it. I didn’t shave till I was 86 years old, having reached puberty only two years earlier.”
Mr Rees-Mogg intends to celebrate his 300th birthday in 50 years time with a celebration to mark Britain’s five decades of recession.
